Music Editing Apparatus and Method and Program

1. A music editing apparatus for remix reproducing a plurality of sound materials, each formed from part or the entirety of a music piece, in combination, comprising: a reproduction pattern control section configured to control, based on remix pattern data including the combination of the sound materials and information relating to the sound materials, the position and the timing at which music data of the original music pieces of the sound materials are reproduced such that the sound materials are reproduced in the combination indicated by the remix pattern data; a reproduction speed control section configured to control, based on the value of original tempos which are tempos in the original music pieces of the sound materials indicated by the remix pattern data, the reproduction speed of the sound materials so that the tempos of the sound materials are adjusted to a predetermined master tempo; and a pitch control section configured to control, based on the difference between original keys which are keys in the original music pieces of the sound materials indicated by the remix pattern data and a predetermined master key and the control amount for the reproduction speed, the pitch of sound of the sound materials so that the keys of the sound materials are adjusted to the master key.

2. The music editing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein metadata of each of the music pieces includes beat information indicative of the position of bars of the music piece in the corresponding music data while the remix pattern data includes information indicative of the position of bars and the beat at which the sound materials are disposed on a time axis upon the remix reproduction, and said reproduction pattern control section controls the position and the timing at which the music data are to be reproduced based on the beat information and the remix pattern data so that the top of a bar including a start point of each of the sound materials on the time axis and the top of a bar including the start point of the sound material in the music data are synchronized with each other.

3. The music editing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the beat information includes information representative of the position of the beat of the music pieces in the music data, and said reproduction pattern control section mutes, based on the beat information and the remix pattern data, the sound volume of the reproduction sound of the music data from the top of the bar including the start point of the sound material on the time axis to the beat at the start point of the sound material.

4. The music editing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein metadata of each of the music pieces includes chord information indicative of chord progressions of the music pieces and the position of chords in the corresponding music data, said music editing apparatus further comprising a similarity calculation section configured to calculate a similarity between the chord progressions between two ones of the sound materials based on the chord information.

5. The music editing apparatus according to claim 4 , further comprising a search section configured to search, based on the similarly, for any one of the sound materials suitable for reproduction in an overlapping relationship with a designated one of the sound materials or for any one of the sound materials suitable for reproduction in a connected relationship to a designated one of the sound materials.

6. The music editing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein each of the chords indicated by the chord information is represented based on a relative position of the root of the chord with respect to the keynote of the scale of the sound material.

7. The music editing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the metadata further includes beat information indicative of the position of the beat of the music pieces in the music data, and said similarity calculation section compares the chords of two ones of the sound materials with each other in a unit of a beat based on a similarity matrix which defines the similarity between different chords to calculate the similarity.

8. The music editing apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the similarity matrix is configured such that, where two chords coincide with each other or have a relationship of substitute chords to each other, the similarity between the chords is set higher than that where two chords do not coincide with each other nor have a relationship of substitute chords to each other.

9. The music editing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein, where both of the two sound materials are of the major or of the minor, said similarity calculation section calculates the similarity based on the relative position of the root of the chords with respect to the keynote of the scale of the sound materials, but where one of the two sound materials is of the major and the other sound material is of the minor, said similarity calculation section calculates the similarity based on the pitch of actual sounds of the chords.

10. A music editing method for remix reproducing a plurality of sound materials, each formed from part or the entirety of a music piece, in combination, comprising the steps of: controlling, based on remix pattern data including the combination of the sound materials and information relating to the sound materials, the position and the timing at which music data of the original music pieces of the sound materials are reproduced such that the sound materials are reproduced in the combination indicated by the remix pattern data; controlling, based on the value of original tempos which are tempos in the original music pieces of the sound materials indicated by the remix pattern data, the reproduction speed of the sound materials so that the tempos of the sound materials are adjusted to a predetermined master tempo; and controlling, based on the difference between original keys which are keys in the original music pieces of the sound materials indicated by the remix pattern data and a predetermined master key and the control amount for the reproduction speed, the pitch of sound of the sound materials so that the keys of the sound materials are adjusted to the master key.

11. A program for causing a computer to execute a music editing process for remix reproducing a plurality of sound materials, each formed from part or the entirety of a music piece, in combination, the program comprising the steps of: controlling, based on remix pattern data including the combination of the sound materials and information relating to the sound materials, the position and the timing at which music data of the original music pieces of the sound materials are reproduced such that the sound materials are reproduced in the combination indicated by the remix pattern data; controlling, based on the value of original tempos which are tempos in the original music pieces of the sound materials indicated by the remix pattern data, the reproduction speed of the sound materials so that the tempos of the sound materials are adjusted to a predetermined master tempo; and controlling, based on the difference between original keys which are keys in the original music pieces of the sound materials indicated by the remix pattern data and a predetermined master key and the control amount for the reproduction speed, the pitch of sound of the sound materials so that the keys of the sound materials are adjusted to the master key.